Has Armageddon Started? (Danger Beneath The Sea (DVD))

Member Name: daseaford

Product:	Danger Beneath The Sea (DVD)
Date:	17/01/02 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well filmed.

Disadvantages: Acting a bit poor.

The US Navy has a number of nuclear powered submarines that permanently have atomic missiles on board, ready to retaliate in the event of war. This film is about one of these submarines, the USS Lancing, and its newly appointed Captain, Commander Sheffield (played by Casper Van Dien).

The North Korean army is flexing it’s muscles and during a missile test flight from North Korea, something goes wrong and the missile explodes, causing an atomic explosion just a short distance above the ground. The USS Lancing is just off the coast of North Korea and is caught in the shock wave and loses all its means of communication to the rest of the world. When the submarine surfaces close to South Korean coast the whole area is covered in a thick black radioactive cloud and it looks as if Armageddon has started and the submarine is caught in the middle of it.

The crew of the submarine have no idea of what has happened in the world and the plot of the film is how two sets of officers on the submarine interpret the situation differently. Commander Sheffield does not believe that a war has started and believes their priority is to repair the ship and establish communications with the submarine command base at Pearl Harbour. A number of the other officers believe that war has started and that they should fire their atomic weapons at predetermined targets as soon as possible, as determined by the ship’s standing orders.

The film follows the events that ensue and how the men’s loyalties are tested under the stress of this situation. The story is OK and there is quite a bit of tension in the film, but unfortunately the acting is not all that great. A lot of the confrontations between the officers seem very staged and not at all genuine. The shots within the submarine are well filmed and you do get a feeling for the claustrophobic environment of a submarine.

I might watch this film again, but there are quite a few better submarine dra
ma films around that I would prefer. (such as Crimson Tide or Hunt for Red October). Although there is a decent story line, that is well filmed, the movie is let down a bit by the acting.

Summary: